As an author, I’ve been incredibly fortunate during the pandemic. I’ve still been able to write, readers have continued to buy books, and I’ve now had both my jabs. So I wanted to do what I could to help with the global effort to vaccinate everyone and beat Covid.

So I’ll be donating all proceeds from the pre-orders of Dorset Crime book 1, The Corfe Castle Murders, to COVAX, the scheme to distribute Covid vaccines internationally.

I’m lucky enough to live in a country where I was able to get both my jabs quickly and for free, and it’s so unfair this doesn’t apply to everyone.

In addition, getting the world vaccinated will benefit us all, as the fewer people Covid is transmitted to, the less chance it has to form more mutations which could be resistant to vaccines.

So I’ve decided to contribute by donating 100% of my royalties from pre-orders of The Corfe Castle Murders to Gavi, which is raising funds for COVAX.

To give you an idea of what that means, for each £1.99 book sold, I’ll receive a royalty of £1.36. My goal is to sell 2,000 copies in the two week pre-order period. Which is ambitious for two weeks but I like to be bold.

If I meet my target of selling 2,000 pre-orders, that means that £2,720 will be donated to Gavi.

The Corfe Castle Murders goes on pre-order on July 1st and is published on July 15th, so that gives us a two week window to raise as much as possible.

It’s not much compared to the billions that will be needed, but it’s better to contribute something than nothing, I think.

If you’d like to help more, please consider donating the cost of your own vaccine (which was free if you’re in the UK like me) to Gavi.

It’s estimated that each vaccine costs around £3-8 in the UK, depending on which one you had.

You can do so at the Gavi website. But if all you do is buy a copy of The Corfe Castle Murders when it’s on preorder, you’ll be helping people across the world to get vaccinated.

Thank you!
Rachel